The Three Principles of Institutional Safeguards for Women's Participation in Legislation in China

LIU Rui

Abstract: The participation of women in legislation is an important aspect and means of safeguarding women's rights. Feminist theory, based on criticism of both the "citizenship identity theory as rights" and the "citizenship identity theory as responsibilities," proposes the "citizenship identity theory as subjectivity." Observing the current practice of women's participation in legislation in China, two institutional safeguard principles can be summarized: the "minimum proportion" and the "influence evaluation." However, each of these principles has its inherent limitations. Therefore, it is necessary to supplement them with the principle of "subjective participation" in a reflective manner. This principle requires women to participate substantively in the legislative process as subjects, express women's needs and demands, input women's perspectives and experiences, and reconstruct the distribution of rights and responsibilities in the existing legislation. The three principles complement each other and work together to comprehensively constitute the institutional structure of women's participation in legislation, thereby promoting the reproduction of corresponding action structures.

Keywords: citizenship identity theory · feminism · women's rights · participation in legislation · subjectivity